Exposure

The true story of a lawyer’s fight to expose DuPont’s deadly chemical contamination—“For Erin Brockovich fans, a David vs. Goliath tale with a twist” (The New York Times Book Review)

1998: Attorney Rob Bilott specializes in helping big corporations follow environmental regulations. Then he gets a phone call from a West Virginia farmer who is convinced the creek on his property is being poisoned by the neighboring DuPont landfill, causing his cattle to die in hideous ways. No local lawyer or regulatory agency will take the case. As soon as they hear the name DuPont—the area’s largest employer—they shut him down.

Once Rob sees the foamy water that bubbles into the creek, the gruesome effects it seems to have on livestock, and the disturbing frequency of cancer and other health problems in the area, he’s persuaded to fight against the type of corporation he routinely represents. Rob’s dogged legal wrangling reveals how DuPont had hidden decades of studies proving the harmful effects of PFOA, a chemical used in making Teflon.

The case of one farmer spawns a class action suit on behalf of seventy thousand residents—and the shocking realization that virtually every person on the planet carries the “forever chemical” PFOA in his or her blood. Exposed is a legal drama “in the grand tradition of Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action” about malice, manipulation, and one lawyer’s twenty-year struggle to expose the truth (Booklist, starred review).